Cassie concludes 4 days of testimony in Sean Combs intercourse trafficking trial : NPR

After spending most of 4 days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony within the legal trial of Sean Combs on Friday afternoon. Ventura, who dated Combs on and off for over a decade, was certainly one of a number of witnesses to take the stand throughout the trial’s first week. However the extent and element of her testimony confirmed how central she is to the federal government’s case towards Combs.

Ventura filed the primary distinguished civil lawsuit towards Combs in 2023, alleging that the rapper and file government had bodily assaulted, trafficked and raped her. That go well with was settled shortly, however Combs was indicted in September 2024 on costs of intercourse trafficking, transporting to have interaction in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. He pleaded not responsible to all costs.

Beginning on Tuesday afternoon, a visibly pregnant Ventura testified that her relationship with Combs was marked with violence, drug use and energy imbalances. The singer was 19 years previous when she signed a 10-album cope with Combs’ label, Unhealthy Boy Information, in 2006. Combs, who’s 17 years older than Ventura, pursued her romantically not lengthy after they started working collectively. Ventura instructed prosecutors that throughout the first yr of their relationship, Combs started bodily abusing her. She testified that he coerced her into drug-fueled, highly-orchestrated sexual performances with male escorts that turned “like a job” and put her profession on the backburner (Ventura solely ever launched one of many 10 albums from her cope with his label). Ventura mentioned she cherished Combs, however he was typically “scary” — and he or she didn’t all the time really feel like she might safely go away the connection.

Considered one of Combs’ protection attorneys, Anna Estevao, spent two days cross-examining Ventura. Time and again, she introduced texts and emails exchanged between Combs and Ventura over that confirmed Ventura agreeing to sexual encounters with male intercourse employees and serving to plan the logistics for these conferences. She additionally requested about Ventura’s profession and the alternatives she gained from being related to Combs. When she requested if Ventura was simply in a position to go away her contract with Unhealthy Boy upon breaking apart with Combs in 2018, Ventura responded: “I needed to combat my means out.”

Estevao’s cross-examination targeted on portray Ventura and Combs as mutually invested within the relationship, and Ventura as a keen participant in unconventional sexual encounters. She requested Ventura to explain their use of medication the best way they’d each develop jealous over alleged infidelities and the lengths they went to to maintain the sexual performances with escorts a secret.

Throughout her direct questioning from prosecutors, Ventura testified that Combs filmed these encounters and blackmailed Ventura with them when she tried to maneuver on from their relationship. She mentioned that in 2014, somebody she was working with at an occasion in Atlantic Metropolis hinted he had data of a sexually specific video of Ventura. She testified that she assumed it was a video of the “freak-offs” — a time period she and Combs used to explain their encounters with escorts — and he or she anxiously texted Combs, who responded, “That is loopy. Don’t let him out of your sight.” Ventura mentioned she ended up taking Combs’ safety together with her to “intimidate” the person.

In cross examination on Friday, Estevao referenced that testimony and performed an audio recording of Ventura at that assembly, through which she may be heard repeatedly threatening to kill the person if he would not cooperate. “I’ve by no means killed anyone in my life, however I am going to kill you,” she says within the recording. “It is not going to be blood on my arms. Another person is gonna do it.”

Estevao questioned Ventura on whether or not Combs additionally fearful the movies could be leaked and whether or not they would harm his status as properly, not simply hers. Ventura agreed.

When the prosecution resumed questioning her, Ventura mentioned she was appearing below Combs’ directions on the time of that audio recording. She additionally testified that after they’d had an argument in Cannes and Ventura was making an attempt to create distance between herself and Combs, he insisted on sitting subsequent to her on the flight from France to New York. She mentioned he spent the whole thing of the journey displaying Ventura specific movies of her with an escort — after which pressured her to take part in a efficiency hours after touchdown.

In the direction of the tip of the protection’s cross examination, Estevao requested Ventura concerning the settlement she acquired from her civil lawsuit towards Combs. Ventura confirmed that the quantity of the settlement was $20 million. When requested whether or not the settlement got here at a time of economic hardship for her household, Ventura denied this was the case. Later, prosecutors additionally requested Ventura concerning the settlement. “I might give that cash again if I by no means needed to have freak-offs,” Ventura mentioned by tears. “If I by no means needed to have freak-offs, I’d have company and autonomy. I would not have needed to work so onerous to realize it again.”

After Ventura’s testimony concluded on Friday afternoon, two extra witnesses have been known as to the stand. The primary was particular agent Yasin Binda with Homeland Safety Investigations. Binda, who mentioned she works with the human trafficking group at HSI, testified that she helped plan the logistics for Combs’ arrest in September 2024 and carried out the search warrant on his room on the Park Hyatt Lodge in New York Metropolis. Binda testified that her function was to take images of the gadgets discovered in the course of the search. These gadgets included a number of bottles of child oil and lubricant, unlawful substances, a lighting system that might be used for “temper lighting” and $9,000 in money — all gadgets that matched Ventura’s testimony of the provides she and Combs used for “freak-offs.”

After Binda completed testifying, the singer Daybreak Richard took the stand. Richard was a member of the group Danity Kane, which Combs helped to place collectively within the mid-2000s as a part of the fact TV competitors Making The Band. Danity Kane was signed to Combs’ Unhealthy Boy Information for a number of years; Richard was additionally a member of the electrosoul trio Diddy Soiled Cash alongside Combs and vocalist Kalenna Harper. Final yr, Richard filed a civil lawsuit towards Combs alleging a poisonous and abusive working setting all through her skilled relationship with him — the lawsuit additionally acknowledged that she witnessed Combs violently assaulting Ventura on a couple of event.

Richard testified briefly; she’s going to stay on the stand subsequent week. When she started her testimony on Friday, Richard described being current at an altercation in Combs’ residence through which he turned “belligerent” as Ventura tried to make him eggs; Richard testified that Combs grabbed the skillet Ventura was utilizing and tried to hit her over the pinnacle with it. She alleged Ventura dropped to the bottom into fetal place whereas Combs punched and kicked her, finally placing his arm round her neck and dragging her upstairs by her hair. “I used to be scared for her,” Richard instructed the courtroom. “I had by no means seen something like that earlier than.”